GM 33: RAPID REACTS

That’s three near double-doubles in the last week, but Allen (like the rest of the Sixers bigs) doesn’t play physical enough and he got eaten alive by Scola and Gortat. When he cut the PHX lead to 60-59 on a 19-footer with 6:34 left in 3rd Q, I thought Sixers would pull this one out, but they simply could not get that next basket.

Thaddeus Young, SF36 MIN | 6-10 FG | 2-2 FT | 10 REB | 2 AST | 14 PTS | -10I’ve said it many times, Thad just punches the clock each and every night and along with Holiday has become part of the Sixers own “dynamic duo”.

Last night I couldn’t decide overall whether or not Turner was forcing things too much or was simply unlucky. He got a lot of clean/close/good looks and just could not get the ball to drop. That’s unlucky in my opinion. However I could be convinced that he was dropping his head too frequently last night and did a mediocre job of finding teammates.

A triple-double is amazing, but take a closer look at the stats and you’ll see why Holiday did not get an “A”. He scored 16 points on an inefficient 16 FGAs (6-16 = 37.5%) and turned the ball over 6 times. And while his late 4th Q defense was outstanding, during most of the game, the tenacious Dragic made Jrue look slow and uninterested.

A solid outing from Wright who seems to have rediscovered his scoring touch after taking the night off vs. GSW a couple games ago. The alley-oop he caught from Jrue that cut the lead to 87-85 with 2 mins. remaining was a thing of beauty. He also hit a huge 3-pointer in the late 3rd Q.

Just a terrible shooting night by Spence. When you’re a big that doesn’t rebound well or play solid defense, you have to provide some scoring punch and Spence failed to do that last night.

Royal Ivey, PG4 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 PTS | -7

Irrelevant.

Nick Young, SG20 MIN | 3-7 FG | 4-4 FT | 0 REB | 1 AST | 12 PTS | +2

This is exactly the role I want to see NY cast in by DC. One or two less running leaners and he would have gotten an A+ from me.

Kwame Brown, CDNP COACH’S DECISION MIN | FG | FT | REB | AST | PTS |

Did anyone else catch Kwame dancing to Gangnam Style?? That about sums up his time here in Philly.

Doug Collins

DC should not have waited until the 4 min mark of the 3rd to get Wright back into the game. Also why the hell is Holiday on the bench for so long in the 4th. I can’t believe I am saying this, why did Kwame get no burn last night? DC claims he is the Sixers “physical” big man yet did not see fit to put him in the game as the PHX bangers were knocking our guys all over the place. Finally, playing a short bench vs. LAL came back to haunt us last night in the 2nd game of the notorious road B2B.

After the Jump, Six Things We Saw Last Night…

1. PHX grabbed control of this game right from the 2nd half jump. The 7-6 came out cold in the 3rd Q — 2-for-their-first-8 with 2 turnovers. Scola hit consecutive baskets and Jared Dudley added a 21-foot jumper to key an 8-2 run that put the Suns ahead 56-51 with 9:38 left in the third quarter. The Sixers would never lead in this game again.

2. While there is no doubt that Scola (19 of his 21 points in the 2nd half), Gortat (11 points and 14 rebs) and Dragic (20 pts. & a career-high 3 blocks — as many as the Sixers had as a team) simply killed the Sixers last night, I thought Shannon Brown hit us with two key buckets in the 4th Q of this game to keep the Suns in the lead. With the Suns leading 79-74, ET missed a bunny and the Suns went the other way. At the other end, Brown grabbed an OREB and put it back in (81-74). Then with PHX leading 81-76, Wright missed a 3PA. The Suns got the reb and called a TO. Out of the timeout, Brown drilled a 22-footer (83-76).

3. Closing out this game wasn’t pretty for the 7-6. Holiday found Dorell Wright breaking down the left baseline from half-court for an alley-oop layup that pulled the 76ers within 87-85 with 2:16 to go. Then Dragic made a pair of free throws, P.J. Tucker hit a 16-footer and the 76ers turned the ball over twice (including a 5 sec. call) over the next minute as the Suns opened a 91-85 lead. GAME OVER.

4. How far has former #2 overall pick (’08) Michael Beasley fallen? Despite continuous chanting from Kansas State fans (in town for Thursday’s Fiesta Bowl against Oregon) for the former Wildcat to enter the game, Beasley saw only 7 mins of burn. He did not play a lick vs. OKC in the Suns previous game and had only 2 points on 1-8 shootin in 10 mins. of run at Minny on 12/29.

5. The Sixers bigs (Hawes, Allen & Brown) grabbed a total of 16 rebounds last night. In case you did not hear, over New Year’s weekend, “Big Nik” pulled down 29 in a game for the Orlando Magic. Vuc also had 20 & 12 last night vs. CHI.

6. Unless there is a miracle in San Antoni or OKC, the Sixers will go 2-6 on this 8-game Ice Capades road trip. Ugghhhh…